


Between All The Things Real

by Zarius



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Other, Post-Episode: s12e07 Can You Hear Me?, Sex, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28478847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: "It's their journey, we're just along for the ride"
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan, Thirteenth Doctor/Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan/Graham O’Brien
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Between All The Things Real

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vgault](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vgault/gifts).



As the TARDIS fell freely through the time/space vortex en route to its destination, Yasmin and Ryan occupied their time by talking shop about recent events.

"You think he'll ever get over it?" Yaz asked.

"Get over what Yaz?" Ryan responded.

"The fear of it all, the fear that it's all still there, waiting for him"

"Doctor doesn't even have a clear answer for him"

"Oh I wasn't talking about the cancer scare, I meant something else"

"What else is there?"

"That feeling you get when you don't put away an old coat after someone's died"

Ryan gave Yaz an ominous, offended look.

"I'm sorry, it's not my place, I get it"

"You're talking about Nan"

Yaz moved her mouth across her lips in a manner to infer she would say no more and keep mum on the matter.

"You're not getting excused that easily, you started, so you'll finish, go on" Ryan insisted, feeling Yaz had picked a hill to die on and encouraged her to keep digging her grave on it.

"Just putting my deduction skills to good use, just reading the room"

"What room is there to read?"

"Is the Doc still here?" Yasmine asked.

Ryan peered over the edge of the columns where they were sitting, sure enough; the Doctor was working feverishly at the controls. Graham had gone elsewhere for a bit of a think.

"Yeah, she's here...why? You got something to say that you don't want her to hear?"

"I'm pretty sure she'll find a way to listen in anyway, and if so, good, I want her to hear this, because she isn't being fair. To us, and to him"

"In what way?"

"'Socially awkward', do you honestly buy that? Around him? Don't you find that a bit...peculiar?"

Ryan pondered this, he reflected on all the instances the Doctor had shown the least amounts of shyness or struggle around them in previous adventures, even in the quietest moments, and realised Yaz had a point.

"Yeah, a little I guess, actually, a lot"

"She travels through time and space, she's been to thousands of worlds that can treat him for this stuff...maybe he wanted to hear about them, but...she bottled all that up. After all we've been through together, she owed it to him to be a bit more understanding and open"

That should have been it, Yaz thought, as she spotted the Doctor stand slightly upright from her crooked position leaning over the console, folding her arms around the back of her head and letting out an exuberantly laboured sigh.

Whether or not she had heard Yaz's conversation wasn't Yaz's place to determine, but at least there had been a convenient reaction.

But Yaz could not let it lie, as her eyes lit up with another inspired thought, one that reeled her.

"You don't suppose...nah"

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Crazy thought, a bit cheeky actually, best to ignore it"

"Come on, share"

"You don't suppose they were...that they've been..."

"What are you getting at? Spill it"

The thought nagged her so much at this point, that it could not be contained.

"...Oh my god, they're having sex" Yaz said, briefly raising her voice.

"They're what?" Ryan said, his voice levelling up. Yaz urged him to keep it composed.

"You alright over there fam?" The Doctor yelled.

"Peaches Doctor, we're all peaches" Yaz said, giving her friend a thumbs up.

"Sex with Granddad? Are you mental?" Ryan delicately whispered.

"I'll have you know I have been in the past Ryan, but I'm in perfectly sound mind here" Yaz replied.

"I was reading her body language the entire time they were talking, think about it, that cancer talk was him confiding a very personal thing to her, something just seemed...off about it, he wasn't speaking to her like a patient would to a professional, this felt like he wanted something more, or was already getting something else and wanted to deepen what was already there. Her telling him she was 'still socially awkward' meant she wasn't ready to deal with that possibility just yet"

"...You're playin' Yaz"

"I don't play around, and The Doctor shouldn't either. I know it was probably out of line for me, but I needed to know if Graham had put his past, with your nan, with Grace, entirely behind him before he chose to move forward like this. Maybe The Doctor doesn't want to feel like she's been taken advantage of, I don't think this is new to her, feeling cheated out of something special, she might be angry more at the situation, at the possibility the cancer could take him away from her, before she can show him how little there is to fear from it.

Maybe she still sees that old coat hanging close to the door that she's hesitant to open, a door to a fresh new start, a door to something altogether entirely new to her. Maybe she's half-way through that door already"

"Should we ask her then?" asked Ryan.

"No, no it's not our place. This is between her and him to sort out, it's their journey, we're just along for the ride"

"Yeah, I reckon she knows the journey won't last much longer"

Yaz looked back as Graham made his way back to the console room, he and The Doctor took fleeting, yet meaningful and unyielding glances of another, both trying to stir up the spirit and energy to say something assuring to the other. But all there seemed to be was silence.

Yaz was reminded of a poem.

_"Between all the things real  
there is imagination_

_across all the desires  
there are dreamsamid this silence,  
there is music  
there is magic  
there is love"_


End file.
